I am wondering if you have a baby in your bed who was very wakeful but over time has become less so without you doing anything i.e. sleep training or night weaning?

Our Bub is 8 months and always been in the bed. From one waking she regressed at 4 months and now 'wakes' between 4 and 7 times. On the whole I can cope with this because each time we are both barely awake and after a very quick suck she's straight back off. (Lately though she has done a few 'every hour' nights and also has started some continuous nursing from 4am-ish which is doing me in. Teeth I guess...)

I don't want to night wean and will endure whatever she needs in the night. I do think we wake each other up through the night. This is all part of CSing and I believe is good for babies brains but maybe 7 times is a bit excessive. I'm very tired. Therefore I hope to get her in the cot next to the bed eventually as a bit of space might be good for us both.

I just wondered if you believe BFed CSing babies naturally become less wakeful over time?

Thanks

x

p.s. Very interesting article here btw - do babies earn to 'self-soothe' by contact with parent rather than the absence of it?

Sounds perfectly normal, and she will likely change again. I was never able to nurse and sleep at the same time--so I popped both girls off. I know dd1 would have preferred to stay latched, but I simply could not sleep or even lie still with her nursing.

There are many options available to you beyond all-out night weaning. Try to keep yourself awake through a feeding and pop her off. Waking her first, if she's awake enough to have a nursing. Both assume you keep yourself awake long enough--good luck with that! It sounds like, if she's falling back asleep right off (or do you think that because you do?) that she might be nursing for comfort. As for the 4:00 marathon, that's normal, too, though not fun. For me, that was normally my best sleep, right in the morning, and so even more devastating when I couldn't get it.

Beyond teeth, other things that could keep a child waking up: allergies, growth spurts, new skills

Both mine started sleeping quite well after their molars finished breaking through at 2.5-- so not "babies" anymore, sorry. At that point they were not waking up to nurse and hadn't for a while. DD1 would wake up with a loud "MEH" that would wake every one, but wasn't really "awake". And when she was 4 she would hold her pee and toss and turn and toss and turn because she didn't want even to be carried to the potty. DD2 had stomach aches and would roll around, arms and legs akimbo, without ever really waking up. But the dreaded, awful, morning nursing marathon was gone (and was, unfortunately, replaced by dd2 screaming at me some mornings to get up.)

So, I doubt that I am your "inspiration". Both my girls were difficult in their own way, but they became very good sleepers eventually. That's the rub-- yours might not settle down for a long time, another's might have settled down easily doing everything the same.

"Let me see you stripped down to the bone. Let me hear you speaking just for me."